Warlords of Draenor Developer Interviews
There were a few developer interviews at the recent press events, so today we are taking a look at interviews with Alex Afrasiabi from Gameplanet.

Misc

You won't be allowed to fly in Draenor at release, and the devs want to see how players react to this.

Afrasiabi also mentions that he thinks it is possible that players could love a world with no flying.

Garrisons will change the way the game plays, making it feel new.

Draenor

Iron Horde will be coming through the Dark Portal in the weeks coming up to the expansion release.

Upon arrival to Draenor, players will go through a 45 minute experience to try and turn off the Dark Portal to save Azeroth.

You will see why the enemy is so bad right right away, as well as why you must stop them.

When Garrosh goes back to Draenor, he still thinks he is a great savior. He wants to show the world the might of a united Orc front.

Flying in Warlords of Draenor
One of the statements from the interview above prompted some discussion on the forums about the possibility of no flying at all in Warlords of Draenor.

Hearthsteed Colors
You may remember that the Hearthsteed mount was added to the game with both red and blue variations. So far, everyone has received the blue version for trying out Hearthstone. It appears the red version still may show up in the future though!

Successfully parrying an attack with Swift Reflexes should no longer incorrectly cause NPC guards to attack the Monk for reflexively striking back at an attacker.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios

Dungeons

Mogu'shan Palace: Resolved an issue where Trial of the King may not reset correctly if the party dies during the encounter.

Battlegrounds and Arenas

Twin Peaks and Warsong Gulch

The winning team now receives an 18 Honor Point bonus for each capture the opposing team is prevented from completing. This means every capture below 3, up to a maximum of 54 bonus Honor if the losing team had 0 captures.

Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, and The Battle for Gilneas

Bonus Honor is now awarded to the team for every 130 resources gained (down from 260) or every 100 resources gained when it’s featured on Call to Arms (down from 200).

Silvershard Mines

Bonus Honor is now awarded to the team for every 200 resources gained (down from 265) or every 130 resources gained when it’s featured on Call to Arms (down from 160).

Strand of the Ancients

The amount of Honor awarded for successfully destroying or defending a gate has been doubled.

Timeless Isle

Guards at Huojin Landing and Tushui Landing on Timeless Isle are now significantly deadlier.

Brawler's Guild

Hexos: Players should no longer be killed by the maze after successfully defeating Hexos.

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Hotfix BugYou nerfed Flying Serpent Kick for FC'ing but you didn't nerf Burst of Speed?
This was unintentional (an unexpected side effect of a different hotfix). We're working on correcting the issue now. Once that's done, Monks should once again be able to use Roll, Chi Torpedo, and Flying Serpent Kick while carrying the flag. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hearthsteed Issues

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

If you have having troubles with procuring this mount, try this!

1) Be sure to win 3 games of Hearthstone in PLAY or ARENA mode first! Your 3 wins can be from Casual or Ranked play. The introductory missions do not count. You'll know it's your third win because you'll get the "Mount Up!" quest reward notification in Hearthstone!

2) Log into World of Warcraft and check your mail. No Hearthsteed to be seen? Go to the next step!

3) Log out of World of Warcraft and log in to Hearthstone one more time.

4) Log out of Hearthstone and log back in to World of Warcraft. Check your mail - your Hearthsteed should await!

Free Character Migrations Available (EU)

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

If you're on one of the source realms listed below, you can move your characters to one of the designated destination realms and avoid the queues—for free!

By initiating one of these transfers, you will be moving your character to a new realm and home. This is a one-time, one-way move. If you wish to move your character elsewhere, you will need to use the paid transfer service.

Silvermoon => Magtheridon / Azuremyst

Kazzak / Outland / Stormscale => Auchindoun

Please be aware that, due to the unpredictable nature of free transfers, we may close down any Free Character Migrations at any time and without warning if the target realm becomes full. If you plan to move with friends or your guild, we suggest that you coordinate the effort to reduce the chance of any stragglers being left behind.

Early closures aside, this set of Free Character Migrations will end on Tuesday, March 18

I don't mind about not being able to fly during pexing, I think that's normal, and allows us to do quests correctly. BUT if they don't want us to have them at lvl100, why don't they make it unlockable with the Loremaster achievement ? Some of us don't mind about doing all the quest sequences of a zone, and they want to do that achievement, that would be a good reward for those who took the time to complete every story in Draenor.

But I'm NOT OK with no flying at all ever, no ! When I connect just for an hour, I don't want to lose time going from one point to another.... Plus I have 180 mounts and a LOT of drakes and cloud serpents, which I can't use as ground mounts (even if they can walk, f*ck logic...), I took a lot of time to get these mounts, and I'm not OK about not being able to use them on Draenor !!!

Nah, it's Blizzard who decides that you're not flying the first time in Draenor. They are the ones who wants you to experience the world as it should be. You know, actually experiencing the zones instead of swooping down to quest items without a care in the world, ignoring any danger along the way.

That "danger" just becomes an annoyance very, VERY quickly, especially if we're going to be running around on a blownup timeless isle-format area.

I can't wait to collect 50 more shiny rocks across all of draenor. On foot.

The "just use ground mounts" argument is as laughable as telling people who think leveling is too fast not to use heirlooms, well not using them feels like garbage because you lose 50% xp (ironically) and they have far worse gear in the process. Almost no one are willing to gimp themselves even though they would prefer the alternative.

Sounds like a personal problem, tbh.

So why would anyone force themselves to take extra risks (daze, pvp, falldamage), travel about half as slow, when they can just jump on a flying anyway.

Sounds good to me.

Why would I risk daze or falldamage when it's unrelated towards where I'm currently going or doing?

Too much convenience is detrimental to the game.

Only when the things you're "conveniencing" your way over actually add gameplay or a means to an end.

Yaungol that charge you aren't that. The ground and all the lovely mobs look just as pretty from the air if "a richer world" is what you're trying to build up here.

And even that comparison is fallacious. Compare a zone like Storm peaks (absolutely cannot be traversed solely on the ground) to oh, say, Hellfire Peninsula (designed to be traversable on the ground)

Yeah, really clever blizz...let us fly in every expansion, make all meta mounts flying only and then remove it...idiots. To me, flying and exploring the world without limitations is a huge joy.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, saying WoW has lost its "soul" and that flying ruined it...are you bloody serious with that statement? We've had flying since TBC, the according to nostalgic dweebs "best expansion evaaah" and we had flying in WOTLK, the expansion where subscribe numbers saw their peak. Do you HONESTLY believe that flying made people leave and not natural stuff like ooooh I don't know...the game growing older, people growing up, the economy getting worse, people getting BORED of the same old same old in terms of actual gameplay mechanics and so on...?

Also, saying WoW has lost its "soul" and that flying ruined it...are you bloody serious with that statement? We've had flying since TBC, the according to nostalgic dweebs "best expansion evaaah"

It's funny to watch the mental calisthetics people pull to try and shunt the "blame of flying" onto WotLK, because in their minds BC could do no wrong. It's usually some piddlin crap about "well they weren't as bad back then!" or some similar drek.

A claim made even more laughable considering that nigh every single max-level faction in BC that required daily quests to earn rep REQUIRED flying mounts.

Eeeh.. I don't mind being forced onto ground mounts for a certain period of time or in certain zones. I'm happy to be grounded during leveling/getting to know the world. But after a certain point it would get annoying, especially since flight paths are ALWAYS super inefficient ways to get from A to B, and don't let you stop in between. When you get to 100 and have been on Draenor for so long then not having flying will just make the game annoying to traverse the terrain from where you are to where you want to be.

Example: I've been working on fishing the quest fish for Nat Pagel rep. I almost always log out in the Shrine. I fly over the mountains north of the vale to kun-lai for the sha fish, then down to Vo4W for the flying fish, then on down to the Anglers place to fish up the octopus and be done. That's a straight line, up and down the continent that I can fly myself. Quick and efficient.
With flight points I would have to take a flight path all the way around the vale from kunlai to get to Vo4W, then fly to a camp on northern border of Krasarang which takes me east and then west again to reach it, cuz that's the closest Horde flight point, then walk down through the jungle and across the water to get to the Anglers. Turning maybe 10min of flying/fishing into much longer period of time.

yes, I see soooo many people riding around on non-flying mounts right now, just for the fun of it! Seriously blizz, if people "love a world without flying" they have acces to it right now. Flying isn't mandatory, it's optional! Yes, for levelling it is a nice way to introduce zones, but once you have seen those zones a million times, guess what, you take taxis to get around, you know, flying?

This just seems like a bad excuse for forcing people to use the taxis system and try to get gold out of the game instead of just making interesting money-sinks.

Oh, and you want the expansion to not be about flying, then you make the CE mount a BIRD?!

yes, I see soooo many people riding around on non-flying mounts right now, just for the fun of it! Seriously blizz, if people "love a world without flying" they have acces to it right now. Flying isn't mandatory, it's optional! Yes, for levelling it is a nice way to introduce zones, but once you have seen those zones a million times, guess what, you take taxis to get around, you know, flying?

This just seems like a bad excuse for forcing people to use the taxis system and try to get gold out of the game instead of just making interesting money-sinks.

Oh, and you want the expansion to not be about flying, then you make the CE mount a BIRD?!

i hope they end up going back on this decision.

I'm torn between hoping they change the "no flying" decision before the expansion comes out versus them implementing "no flying," receiving huge backlash, changing it to the way it should be and allowing flying at max level, and then never trying such a thing again. Maybe ever fewer daily quest zones with no flying to boot.

Why oh why must Blizzard insist on changing the things we are happy with - such as flying, gemming, reforging, stats etc etc etc when nobody complains about them?? How about trying to fix any of the huge list of things people have been complaining about for years instead?

Why oh why must Blizzard insist on changing the things we are happy with - such as flying, gemming, reforging, stats etc etc etc when nobody complains about them?? How about trying to fix any of the huge list of things people have been complaining about for years instead?

Actually I could give two shits about them removing hit and expertise. Really just pain in the ass stats. And also, no primary stat+expertise gems? That's just BS.

But yes, removing flying isn't going to do much of anything. People are blaming a whole host of problems, some of which developed before flying (death of world PvP) and some of which developed long, long after on the existence of flying mounts. And of course, as they're not related, removing flying for no reason wont solve anything.

For the record, none of us ever 'bought the rights to fly'.
You bought the rights to fly in Outland, the right to fly in Northrend, in Kalimdor/EK, and then finally in Pandaria.
Those are the only rights you bought, and the only ones you have a right to, and nobody is taking those away.

Now if people would stop acting as if they've actually lost something, I'd really appreciate that.

For the record, none of us ever 'bought the rights to fly'.
You bought the rights to fly in Outland, the right to fly in Northrend, in Kalimdor/EK, and then finally in Pandaria.
Those are the only rights you bought, and the only ones you have a right to, and nobody is taking those away.

Now if people would stop acting as if they've actually lost something, I'd really appreciate that.

Losing time running from place to place and getting dazed off my mount to have to fight mobs that couldn't kill me if I AFKed for five minutes straight comes to mind.

I might be inclined to fly over parts of Northrend just to look around every now and again. But I stay the hell away from doing so on the timeless isle. Any clues as to why?

I hope people will really start to shitstorm once WoD is out and people reach max level and finally realise that they can't learn flying until the next patch. It will be glorious since then people who never ever have used the forums will join there and ask why that it. The very vocal minority of nostalgia blinded no-fly advocates thinks they represent the masses, they will have a rough wake up call.

I cant wait for no flying. Flying is soooo unnecessary in wow.
I actually want to see other players when Im traveling, see what theyre up to.

Ppl are just way too used to flying by now. I dont know why they want an effortless gameplay... When traveling just point towards the direction you want to go to and afk a while. When gathering just be like a bot and look at the map and the nodes with your gatherer addon and just mindlessly fly in circles gathering herbs. No obstacles, no nothing... No fun.

Flying was fun the first couple weeks in tbc. No it just makes everything so boring.
Seriously, if you cant handle dodging a few mobs, swiming a bit, fighting a few players etc when going from A to B. Maybe its time to realize how spoiled you are then. Yes, its Blizzards fault and they do know that flying was a mistake.

I personally love playing on a vanilla server, no flying. Same with any other MMO. You actually get to interact with other players when your not just flying past them without ever seeing them.

For the record, none of us ever 'bought the rights to fly'.
You bought the rights to fly in Outland, the right to fly in Northrend, in Kalimdor/EK, and then finally in Pandaria.
Those are the only rights you bought, and the only ones you have a right to, and nobody is taking those away.

Now if people would stop acting as if they've actually lost something, I'd really appreciate that.

If you'd stop acting as if you know anything, I'd really appreciate that.

I have spent TONS of gold, time and even real money on many of my flying mounts. Out of 240 mounts, over 90 are flyers and a whole host of those are ONLY flyers...YES, I'D LOVE to see them all rendered useless because Blizzard can't leave well enough alone and let the "Vanilla was teh beeeeest!!!!1"-crowd influence them way more than they should.

So yeah, no flying in the entire current continent = I WOULD lose something. And that is only speaking of my flying-only mounts, I haven't brought up my joy of exploring and feeling freedom to do so being severely gimped.

I pray to god all mighty of Narnia that they keep Draenor non-flying zone.
As tedious as it was in Vanilla to gather mats and other things, it created so many things for the community. Now its just braindead from point A to point B without any interaction with other players.
This little change can bring so many refreshing changes to WoW's community whether you want to be part of it or not.

I'm sorry to hear people are crying over this.
To be honest, I'm pretty amazed how people don't seem to see the opportunity this has.

Pretty sure its gonna be reverted after the first major patch hits in though.
The WAAH WAAH in the forums will be massive and quite depressing to see.

I cant wait for no flying. Flying is soooo unnecessary in wow.
I actually want to see other players when Im traveling, see what theyre up to.

Maybe I don't care about seeing you.

And before you break out the tired "Well maybe an MMO isn't for you" there are OTHER, actually meaningful, aspects of multiplayer content I enjoy in WoW. Like PvP. Or raids. Or dungeons. Or showing off my beautiful collection of flying mounts.

Ppl are just way too used to flying by now. I dont know why they want an effortless gameplay... When traveling just point towards the direction you want to go to and afk a while.

Can't wait to see how you reconcile that with your inevitable post of "flight paths are a fine alternative to flying."

When gathering just be like a bot and look at the map and the nodes with your gatherer addon and just mindlessly fly in circles gathering herbs. No obstacles, no nothing... No fun.

People made the decision. That's the thing.

You're saying "here, I'm SURE you'll have fun this way!" when people are saying "no, I don't want to do it this way." To which you answer "WELL YOU'RE NOT HAVING FUN RIGHT!"

It's really quite petty.

Flying was fun the first couple weeks in tbc. No it just makes everything so boring.

And there's the "well flying was just fine in BC!" mental calisthenic I talked about earlier.

Seriously, if you cant handle dodging a few mobs, swiming a bit, fighting a few players etc when going from A to B. Maybe its time to realize how spoiled you are then. Yes, its Blizzards fault and they do know that flying was a mistake.

yeah same deal as I said before, go back seven years and tell em to change it. Because the game has been doing fine with it.

I personally love playing on a vanilla server, no flying. Same with any other MMO. You actually get to interact with other players when your not just flying past them without ever seeing them.

Yeah, again, I really don't give two shits if I see people while I'm traveling from A to B.

The world becomes A to B the first time after you explore it.

Most likely no flying in WoD. Ever. Thank God!

Not a unanimously popular opinion.

People bitching about flying "ruining WoW" is what goaded Blizzard to attempt this direction in the first place. All it takes to undo it is significant backlash in the opposite direction.

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by New Envoke

I pray to god all mighty of Narnia that they keep Draenor non-flying zone.
As tedious as it was in Vanilla to gather mats and other things, it created so many things for the community.

Yeah so did farming resist gear.

No way in hell I'd want that back.

Now its just braindead from point A to point B without any interaction with other players.
This little change can bring so many refreshing changes to WoW's community whether you want to be part of it or not.

I'm sorry to hear people are crying wolf over this.

That's not what "cry wolf" means...

To be honest, I'm pretty amazed how people don't seem to see the opportunity this has.

I've seen that "opportunity" with their attempts at it in 2.4, 4.2, 5.2, and 5.4.

Yeah it's been underwhelming, frankly.

Pretty sure its gonna be reverted after the first major patch hits in though.
The WAAH WAAH in the forums will be massive and quite depressing to see.

It's the wake-up call the "flying ruined WoW" crowd needs to get their heads out of the nostalgia sand.

And it's fascinating how old that sand is. SEVEN YEARS we've had flying mounts. Flying mounts have been integral parts of what are widely regarded as the two "best" WoW expansions (BC and WotLK) and have been present though the game since to no ill-effect that wasn't already "invoked" all the way back in BC.